According to the Israel Defense Forces, Khalil Abu Nachfeib, 18, was shot dead after hurling grenades toward the security fence.

Also early Saturday, an IAF missile hit the offices of the Palestinian Economy Ministry early Saturday.

The strike set the building on fire, Palestinian officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene of the attack, located near a housing complex inhabited by some 600 people.

Soon after, another IAF airstrike destroyed a small bridge near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed both airstrikes.

Meanwhile, the IDF completed its latest incursion into the central Gaza Strip on Friday morning.

The operation concluded after Givati, Golani and armored corps forces overtook the corridor between Kibbutz Kissufim inside Israel and the ruins of former Gush Katif settlements, entering the outskirts of Khan Yunis and Dir el-Balah in Gaza.

GAZA CITY, 16 July 2006 — Two Palestinians were killed as Israel pounded Gaza with fresh air raids yesterday. Ten people were wounded including three babies, in Israel’s campaign to retrieve a captured soldier. A25 -year-old Palestinian was killed when Israeli aircraft slammed two missiles into a three-story building in Gaza City, which the Israeli Army described as a weapons factory used by Hamas fighters. Three infants and three women were among 10 other people wounded in the strike, medical sources said.

Earlier, an18 -year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike in a village near Deir Al-Balah.

Firefighters were searching for bodies among the ruins of the building in Gaza City — which was demolished, with a huge crater dug out by the blast — according to an AFP correspondent. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said the building was being used as a rocket factory and ammunitions depot by members of the ruling group Hamas, and that Hamas members were inside at the time. “The powerful blast that occurred afterward could have been caused by the explosion of ammunition stashed inside the building,” she said. The building belonged to a Hamas member, a professor at the Islamic University in Gaza, although he did not live on the premises.

Some neighbors said the building now served as a shop selling wood for construction work, although others said it was used as a “secret meeting place” for various groups.

Armed members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, swarmed around the building after the attack, pushing journalists away.